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NEW YORK, N.Y. -- With the full backing of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said JFK and Newark airports should be closed to all passengers flying from the three West African nations that have the most cases of Ebola.

During a Manhattan news conference Thursday at which Jindal endorsed his fellow Republican for governor of New York state, Jindal -- one of the GOP's rising stars and a possible presidential candidate in 2016 -- called it incompetence and malpractice on the part of President Obama, the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization and Gov. Cuomo to fail to be proactive.

"Time and time again, the CDC and the (Obama) Administration in general have told us things that turned out not to be true. . . .They have been a dollar short and a day late time and time again,'' Jindal said.

"They are again counting on hope. Hope is not a strategy," Jindal said. "You hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

"This is not the flu, Governor Cuomo, this is Ebola," Astorino said in Grand Central Station's Vanderbilt Exhibition Hall. "We need to take action right now."

Astorino continued, "Maybe they should not come here at all. I think we need to take a timeout. The last thing we need is to be politically correct and then have a crisis get out of hand."

Hundreds of rush-hour commuters rubbernecked as they walked past the gathering of reporters, cameras and New York City police. "Instead of playing defense, we need to play offense. God forbid we have a crisis here on our own shore," Astorino said.

Louisiana's governor said he also supports Astorino's position on Common Core and his economic policies that have brought jobs to Westchester County.

"CDC should be focused on its original cause," Jindal said, not on sidewalks and bike lanes. Likewise, he said, WHO has been spending too much effort on tobacco and energy drinks when it should be attacking deadly viruses.

"He's going to be a great governor, " Jindal said of Astorino. "This is a very important election. You have an incumbent governor with a failed record."

As vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Jindal said he's been a longtime advocate of the RGA doing "more to support Rob."